The timing seems unusual, what with Dubai’s burdensome debt load (think whole number multiples of GDP) the collapse of construction, abysmal human rights conditions for workers (stolen passports, indentured servitude) and increasingly obvious issues with the Dubai judicial system. Dubai poses as a western-friendly jurisdiction, but it is anything but when expats fall to the wrong side of the fence. This in an economy that is slave to foreign investment, tourism and external expertise. Into this gauntlet, rides KKR:
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.’s newly formed KKR MENA Ltd. has been granted a license by the Dubai Financial Services Authority to operate from the Dubai International Financial Centre.
KKR MENA is being run by Makram Azar, who is no stranger to the region. During his 18 years at Lehman Brothers Inc., Azar led the media, consumer and retail investment banking businesses in Europe and the Middle East, then was promoted to global head of sovereign wealth funds and chairman of media investment banking for Europe and the Middle East, based in Dubai. He joined KKR last September.
Best of luck, guys.
KKR sets up in Dubai [The Deal]
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, baby
“Equities in Dubai”
Yuo don’t want to participate in their version of the “Perp Walk”…
Is May a good month to pound your secretary in her ass?
J Peterman
Nothing beats getting it in the yinyang come sundown!
-One-handed Arab housewife, otherwise pretty happy with her lot in life
The point of setting up DIFC was for Dubai to have an area that operated under a very Westernized civil legal system. We’ll see how that is tested in this environment.
“Lost your job, have a mortgage? In Dubai the concept of Bankruptcy does not exist, if you have debt and cannot pay it you simply go to jail. Very civilized. Always have an escape route planned.
@7, One needs to add “or is a condo built in the middle of a desert” to the old adage “if it floats, flies or fucks…rent don’t buy.”
@8 Thing is, if non-US workers buy they get 0% income tax. Becomes attractive to buy vs rent especially if you can find a way to flee the country if things go sour.
nobody saw that shit hole of a country collapsing when they were building continent islands… just like the 60 minutes piece from a couple years ago where strange enough most of the neighborhoods with million dollars homes were EMPTY.
Its a gesture towards their SWF LP’s there, nothing more, nothing less. There’s nothing worth buying there but a whole lot of dumb money waiting to pay 2&20.
dubai sucks donkey cock – its what happens when you combine lazy, dumb a lot of sand and the proximity of a lot of oil
Typical of Middle eastern being boastful.
Din’t you check if the salaries of these laborers are paid on time? Some can be as late as 3 to 6 months.